He’s been called “the most influential man in television.” An extraordinary career and life, Sir Peter Bazalgette – or Baz as he’s known to colleagues and others in the creative industries – recently stood down as ITV’s executive chairman.    

RTS chief executive, Theresa Wise, will talk to Baz about his career that with matchless success has combined creativity with entrepreneurship. The former President of the RTS will also discuss the future of TV and the British public service broadcasters.    

Baz’s passion for deal-making, the arts and culture, and for public service broadcasting singles him out as one of the most important figures in television of the post-modern era.    

As chairman and chief creative officer of Endemol UK, he famously developed Big Brother for the UK selling it to Channel 4. The broadcaster launched the show in 2000, which quickly became one the defining - and most controversial - shows of its era.

Baz began his professional life at the BBC, where he was talent spotted by Esther Rantzen to work as a researcher on the seminal That’s Life.    

At the BBC he produced the innovative Food and Drink programme, credited with inventing the celebrity chef. As a pioneering independent producer, he formed Bazal Productions creating such innovative shows as Ready Steady Cook and Changing Rooms.    

He is a former chair of the Arts Council and chairman of English National Opera.    

Baz is also a MacTaggart lecturer, has written for the FT and Prospect. His books include The Empathy Instinct and tellingly Billion Dollar Game, which recounts of the story of how Big Brother changed the face of television.